So George Shaw didn’t win the Turner Prize. The disappointment in the packed big hall at the Herbert art gallery was palpable, as many people left within a few minutes, spurning the after party.
But although it’s disappointing and he’ll miss out on some of the instant attention (and prize money) the win brings, it’s hardly like to harm his career or artistic reputation. George Shaw is already well respected in the art world, by the critics, by collectors and by a growing number of art fans and that will not change.
Google Turner Prize and flick through a list of the past winners and other nominated artists – the ones who’ve gone on to greatest artistic success/fame/richness aren’t always the winners.
Coventry events
George Shaw exhibition opens with lots of champagne … and cider
Timing is everything, and you can’t predict the future.
So five years ago to the week when Rosie Addenbrooke, The Herbert’s Senior Events and Exhibitions Officer asked George Shaw about staging an exhibition in his home city she couldn’t have known the opening of the exhibition would coincide with his nomination for the Turner Prize.
So just 18 days before he finds out whether he has won or not, the exhibition finally opened tonight, with hundreds of people there to quaff champagne and celebrate.
George’s paintings focus on the Tile Hill estate where he grew up, and have been shown in London, hugely-successfully at the Baltic in Gateshead, and elsewhere – but never in such number in Coventry,
EXCLUSIVE: Turner Prize nominee George Shaw talks about his first major Coventry exhibition
IN The Herbert gallery in Coventry the paintings are on the wall, and the final preparations are being made for George Shaw: I woz ere to open to the public.
It’s the first big home-town exhibition for George, born in the city in 1966, and he’s here overseeing the work and admitting to feeling a little anxious about how it will be received.
“It’s all right doing this, thinking about it before I came to do it wasn’t. Without Rosie’s [Addenbrooke, senior exhibitions and events officer] enthusiasm and commitment it wouldn’t have happened. It was something I was avoiding. You are always afraid of doing something you haven’t done before.
“I was slightly anxious the reality of the situation would take over from the work. In many ways it has but not in a negative sense.”
Artspace and Emerge hold open event
Coventry’s Artspace is hosting Almost Festive Thursday this week, where it will be possible to buy original artworks from local professional artists and makers.
Artspace, an independent arts facility, is joining forces with Emerge, a network for Coventry’s creative people, to hold the event.
As well as buying from the makers’ stalls, visitors will be able to touor the eclectic Artspace studios with artist-led tours, and attend the Emerge networking event where artists and makers will share and talk about their work.
The studios and stalls at the venue in Lower Holyhead Road, Coventry city centre, will be open from 2pm this Thursday, November 17, with short guided tours at 3pm and 5pm, and the networking event from 5.30-6.15pm.
Write and publish your haiku for Coventry arts project
A Coventry-based artist is running a project this week, up to October 9, to tie in with National Poetry Day, which was today.
Lorsen Camps’s project is called Beauty in the Everyday and is being funded by Coventry City Council’s Small Art Grant. He is trying to get as many people as possible to write haiku, three-line poems, which will be uploaded to a Facebook page called Coventry Haiku Project.
Just a week to see Coventry MA students’ varied artworks
Coventry University’s MA students are showing off their work in exhibitions at two venues this week.
The Lanchester Gallery at the School of Art and Design, and the fifth floor of the building, plus The Herbert art gallery up the road are both housing a collection of screenings, installations and performances.
First glimpse at Coventry’s new art gallery – but it stays under wraps
THE wraps are finally off and Coventry University’s new Hub is open for students – but one part still being hidden from the world is the Lanchester Gallery.
Ironically the most prominent part of the building on a glass-walled corner is still a building site, with handover planned now for December.
But when it is open it will give a whole new focus to Lanchester Gallery Projects, which until now has held exhibitions in its much-smaller gallery in the university’s School of Art. There’s always been the problem there that although its exhibitions are officially open to the public it’s often hard to get into the building unless you have a university card to open the door – hopefully this new gallery won’t have that problem.
Queer eye on art in Coventry
THERE’S still (just) time to see an exhibition I’ve only today been alerted to, in the Glass Box, in Earl Street, Coventry.
The 1st Annual Queer Art exhibition in Coventry is being staged there, but is taken down on Saturday. It was set up by The Queer’ists Project, which was founded by Coventry-based freelance photographer Marta Kochanek, who graduated from Coventry University this year.
It is a follow up exhibition to the official annual exhibition which took place in Birmingham last month. Marta said it shows work of 13 Queer artists representing artists from the UK, US and Poland.
Marta formed The Queer’ists Project in March to be a platform to emerging and established Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender artists and art lovers.
Peering through the windows this evening it looked an interesting mixture of works and art styles and worth having a proper look if you’re in the area.
Lock exhibition showcases photography students’ talents
STUDENTS from an evening class in Coventry are showing the high standard of their work at an exhibition in t.he city.
The Lock in the warehouse at the Canal Basin has an exhibition, called Through Our Eyes, of works by 16 adult students on a Level 2 City and Guilds course at City College, taught by Richard Pearce.
Coventry University degree show features art and anguish
Coventry University’s annual degree show is a must-see event for anyone in the area who’s interested in what the next generation of up and coming artists are doing.
The opening night on Friday was as usual full of dressed-up students, their proud but often-confused parents and lots of visitors just keen to see what’s going on.
The opening night has never been the same since the students were stopped from serving up their own drinks to all passers-by, meaning you could traverse four floors with a plastic cup of wine never emptying.
However doing it sober probably means visitors notice more of the work. There was a trend this year, especially with the graphic design students, of having offerings of sweets along with their displays – though one display which featured more food carried a note along the lines of ‘please help yourself to sweets but don’t touch the cupcakes’!
Private View II 